Saturday, 11 May 2013

We've all been there: drag and drop a compilation mp3 album in iTunes, upload it to an iPhone, and "Oh God, I forgot to set the effing Part of a Compilation checkbox for every track again": there are as many identical albums on your device as you had tracks in the folder. Scouring the Internet for a solution that could set the compilation flag automatically (there MUST be something, i thought), I didn't find anything until I ran into a simple free utility called Taghycardia. Moreover, it seems like this is THE ONLY solution to this simple problem out there. So, why not give it a try. Installing was a breeze. I just pressed Next a few times, and a Settings Wizard appeared.

I indicated that I'd like to "ensure the accessibility of downloaded MP3 albums on an iPod/iPhone" and to "Add Process with taghycardia to Windows Explorer menu" as I hoped to use the thingy on my music folders regularly. Leaping ahead, I wasn't mistaken.

Then I chose the compilation folder I desperately wanted to put on my iPhone in one piece, brought up the Windows Explorer context menu with a right click, and chose "Process with :: taghycardia :: ". Note the smart use of colons - you wouldn't confuse the item with anything else:)

I clicked on it, and a moment later the program presented me with the following screen:

Bingo! According to the options I set, it detected that this IS a compulitaion, and that I need to put it as a single album on my iPhone! I pressed Apply Changes, and a few moments later I transferred the album onto my device, all the tracks accessible together under a single "VA - Sounds From The Matrix 14" item in the Albums menu! In addition, the program found the cover art for the compilation and embedded into the tracks.